Influence of Ageing on Tendon Homeostasis

Tendon functional competence and structural integrity rely on homeostasis of tendon cell metabolism and extracellular matrix macromolecules. The clear link between tendinopathies and increasing age suggests a slow change to tendon homeostasis, which increases susceptibility to damage. Despite this well evidenced association between increasing age and tendon damage, changes to tendon mechanical properties with ageing are not clear with different studies reporting conflicting results. More recent research suggests that age-related changes occur at specific sub-structure locations and may be overlooked by measuring properties of the whole tendon. In this chapter we review changes to tendon mechanical properties, structure and composition. Mechanisms speculated to contribute to tendon change with age such as cellular senescence, ageing stem cell population, reactive oxygen species and formation of advanced glycation end-product crosslinks are discussed. Understanding age-related changes to tendon homeostasis are key to understanding increased incidence of tendon injuries in the ageing population.